


Robbed of Death

by sobachka



Category: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Rhy copes with being brought back, after acol, some said boi Rhy drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:02:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23698951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sobachka/pseuds/sobachka
Summary: Shades of Magic tumblr-requested drabble~Prompt: Rhy Maresh + "He had been robbed of his death"
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Robbed of Death

It was late afternoon, and the sun hung low in the sky. The air had a hint of salt, its winds blowing through the harbor, pulling at the sails of docked ships, as if beckoning them into its depths. Rhy squinted, scanning the crowded area until his eyes caught on the person he was searching for.

The form was tall, and lanky, wrapped in a worn brown coat that had once borne many different colors, the wind whipped at his auburn hair, revealing the barest hint of black marble where his right eye would have been. Rhy felt a smile spread on his face, and he pushed through the crowd to reach his brother. 

He heard the guard behind him let out a frustrated sigh, shouting at people to make way for their King, but he wasn’t about to wait to be acknowledged, not when Kell had finally caught sight of him.

Faces blurred around him as Rhy stepped out of the crowd, where most of the rushing sailors had noticed the King’s presence and either moved away or bowed hastily. Kell had stepped off of the dock, coming to greet his King. When he noticed the people’s reactions, he smiled, executing a bow of his own, and letting his hair flop back onto his forehead, hiding his eye.

“You’re late,” Kell informed him, as Rhy threw an arm around his brother and embraced him.

“There, you are mistaken, Kell, for a King can never be late,” he pulled back and winked at his brother, “which means you are all dreadfully early.”

Kell arched one red brow, looking mildly unimpressed, the corners of his mouth twitching downward. Rhy beamed as one of his guards chuckled behind him.

“What is it?” Kell asked, brows furrowing. Rhy smiled at him, then said;

“Nothing, only you’re wearing what has become known in the castle as the  _ ‘Kell Look’ _ ”

“What does that even mean?” he asked, deepening his scowl.

Lila Bard chose just that moment to hop in, her slender form almost unnoticeable among the crowds. She was dressed in a black pirate’s coat, the kind that hugged the body down to the waist, then spread outward around the legs like a cape, the style had become popular among the Veskans. A mask bearing the two twisting horns of a devil was pushed back into her hair, leaving her eyes, one brown and one black, on full display.

“He means this face you always make,” she said, drawing her brows together and pulling her mouth down into an exaggerated frown. 

Kell scowled, expression almost matching Lila’s

“I don’t do that,” he insisted, but that only made Lila snort.

“It's good to have you back, Kell, the idiots around me just spend their days smiling,”

Kell rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue further as Rhy led them to the carriages that would take the lot of them home.

It had been a splendid night, in all the ways that mattered. Kell and Lila brightened the castle with their presence- more so Lila than Kell, but Rhy was glad to have them both back all the same.

Luc had shown up when they’d reached the gates, and he and Kell had fallen into the almost comforting bickering they always had. 

And at the late night’s end, everyone headed off on their own, Kell to his quarters, and Luc had gone with Lila to ‘ _ ensure she didn’t completely destroy my ship _ ’, as he’d put it.

And Rhy was left on his own.

Well, he supposed he was never truly alone. A King never could be. But other than the servants rushing to and from the halls, and the guards posted at his doors, he was alone.

Rhy pushed the door closed, bidding the two newest guards goodnight. His room was cast in shadows, the large bed sitting in the center that had once been that of his parents’ now his, was covered in Arnesian red sheets, stacked with pillows embroidered in gold. There was an armchair and a table beside the door, where he and Luc spent time going over correspondents, playing cards, and admittedly, other, less Kingly activities.

Rhy was tempted to throw himself onto the bed now, still dressed in his full King ensemble, but shoved away that tempting thought. He had one more duty to complete before the day was done.

He headed to his dresser, made of dark wood and engraved with golden lettering. He ran his fingers over the words, recognizing their meaning instantly.  _ Chas _ . In recent Arnesion it meant faith. In Old Arnesian it was closer to the English word  _ chase _ , to go after, to seek.

" _ Chas _ ," he whispered against the wood. When Rhy had been younger, he and Kell shared a secret room between the walls of both their quarters, where the young princes would run whenever they needed to speak to each other of important matters such as those all ten year olds are forced to bear.

What he had not anticipated, when he'd taken over the King's Chambers, was that another room would be hidden behind it's walls as well. The wood shifted beneath his fingers, creaking slightly as it slid to the left, creating a rectangular doorway made for a man taller and broader than Rhy himself.

He snatched a lantern from his bedside, letting the doorway shut behind him as he entered. The room was small and circular, with only a set of drawers against one end. If Rhy had to guess, he suspected King Maxim had come into it for some peace of mind, a break from his Kingly duties. But judging by the way the old wood squealed as it moved, and the lack of decor, he did not think his father had come long before his passing.

Rhy set the lantern down in the center of the room, the sound of it's metal against the tiles making him cringe. It lit the entire space, illuminating the dank gray walls, reflecting off the small words carved into them.

The walls had been barren when Rhy had first discovered the room, only days after Kell's travel. He had liked the idea of a small sanctuary, a place of his own. Rhy had planned to tell Luc that same night, to share the place with his partner, but after sitting with his thoughts for a moment too long, he'd decided the secret could wait before being revealed.

Rhy felt his hand stray to his chest, the place just above his heart where a mark would forever be seared into his skin. A mark Kell shared, a bond made to spare his life.

He let the fingers of his other hand trail along the words carved into the wall. There were three hundred and twenty one words. One for every day since he'd found the place. One for every day that the crown became heavy, every day that his thoughts weighed down on his mind like a hundred boulders.

One for every day he wished Kell had let him go.

_ Kell. _ That was the first word he'd carved into the wall. The first reason he'd found to stay.

He moved on to the next word.  _ Maxim. _ His father, the old King. He would be proud of a son that moved forward despite his troubles.

_ Emira. _ His mother. The woman who had cared for him and brushed away his tears from the moment he opened his eyes to the world. He could live another day for her.

They were mostly names,  _ Alucard _ was repeated more than once, a constant reminder that someone needed him to be there, but sometimes they were promises. Responsibilities.

_ Arnes, _ because what would happen to the country he loved if he was one day gone? 

Some things were silly, he could admit, mundane things such as drink and food, others upcoming balls and events he was eager to host.

But they were all one thing in the end; reasons. Reasons to keep his head high, to wake up another morning, to thank his brother for saving him rather than curse his return.

Rhy sat on the ground in front of a new, blank space, and began to carve a new word, a new promise, a new responsibility.

A new reason to live.

_ One day _ , he thought, slipping out the thin dagger he'd been using for so many nights,  _ I will close this room and never again step foot inside. _ But that was for Rhy of the future, and until then, he let himself fall back on this weakness, this need to pull strength from others.

Today, it would be a name. He wasn't certain what the name would be until the blade etched it's letters into the curving wall.

Three letters.

He watched them form and almost smiled when they revealed themselves. Kell had kept him sane on his worst days, and Luc had provided the comfort he had always needed. But there was perhaps only one soul in any of the worlds that Rhy could trust with his secrets, his pains, the one that had seen him at his worst and still stayed, the one that had been forced to remain strong when the world became hard and resilient.

He rose from where he’d been sitting against the wall, and let the dagger remain on the floor. Rhy picked up the lantern and whispered to the doorway to open up once more.

He would not return to that room for days, he knew, perhaps even weeks, because that name, newly carved into the wall but forever carved into his heart, was of course, his own.

Because the only person who truly knew his suffering was him, and he would be the one to push through it, not anyone else. And for now, that would have to be enough. For now, he would have to live until the world deemed his time rightfully done, and he was sent back into the oblivion Kell had pulled him away from years ago.


End file.
